Were all too little to content and please, They are now starv'd for want of exercise : Dio. Our cheeks and hollow eyes do witness it. With their superfluous riots, hear these tears!' Enter a Lord. Lord. Where's the lord governor ? Cle. Here. Speak out thy sorrows which thou bring'st, in haste, Lord. We have descried, upon our neighbouring shore, A portly sail of ships make hitherward. Cle. I thought as much. One sorrow never comes, but brings an heir, That may succeed as his inheritor ;2 And so in ours: some neighbouring nation, Taking advantage of our misery, Hath stuff'd these hollow vessels with their power, [9] I would read---nursle. A fondling is still called a nursling. [1]A kindred thought is found in King Lear : "Take physic, pomp! "Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel, "-------sorrows never come as single spies, [2] So, in Hamlet: STEEVENS. MALONE. STEEVENS. MALONE. To beat us down, the which are down already; Lord. That's the least fear; for, by the semblance Of their white flags display'd, they bring us peace, And come to us as favourers, not as foes. Cle. Thou speak'st like him's untutor'd to repeat, To know for what he comes, and whence he comes, Lord. I go, my lord. Cle. Welcome is peace, if he on peace consist ;* If wars, we are unable to resist. Enter PERICLES, with Attendants. Per. Lord governor, for so we hear you are, [Exit. Are stor'd with corn, to make your needy bread, And we'll pray for you. Per. Rise, I pray you, rise; We do not look for reverence, but for love, [3] Whereas, it has been already observed, was anciently used for where. MALONE. [4] Perhaps we should read---him who is, and regulate the metre as follows: Thou speak'st Like him who is untutor❜d to repeat, &c. The sense is---Deluded by the pacific appearance of this navy, you talk like one, who has never learned the common adage," that the fairest outsides are most to be suspect ed." STEEVENS. [5] If he stands on peace. A Latin sense. MALONE. Or pay you with unthankfulness in thought, Be it our wives, our children, or ourselves, The curse of heaven and men succeed their evils! Per. Which welcome we'll accept ; feast here a while, Until our stars that frown, lend us a smile. [Exeunt. ACT II. Enter GoWER. Gow. Here have you seen a mighty king (To whom I give my benizon,) But tidings to the contrary Are brought your eyes; what need speak I? Dumb show. Enter at one door PERICLES, talking with CLEON; all the Train with them. Enter at another door, a Gentleman, with a letter to PERICLES; PERICLES shows the letter to CLEON; then gives the Messenger a reward, and knights him. Exeunt PERICLES, CLEON, &c. severally. Gow. Good Helicane hath staid at home, Not to eat honey, like a drone, [6] Thinks all is writ he spoken can: Pays as much respect to whatever Pericles says, as if it were holy writ." As true as the gospel," is still common language. MÅLONE. And, to fulfil his prince' desire, Sends word of all that haps in Tyre: How Thaliard came full bent with sin, SCENE I. [Exit. Pentapolis. An open Place by the Sea Side. Enter PERICLES, wet. Per. Yet cease your ire, ye angry stars of heaven! Wind, rain, and thunder, remember earthly man Is but a substance that must yield to you ; And I, as fits my nature, do obey you; Alas, the sea hath cast me on the rocks, Wash'd me from shore to shore, and left me breath [7] Our ancestors had a plural number in their tenses which is now lost out of the language; e. g. in the present tense, I escape We escapen But it did not, I believe, extend to the preter-imperfects, otherwise than thus: They didden [for did} escape. PERCY. [8] The meaning of this may be--Excuse old Gower from telling you what follows. The very text to it has proved of too considerable length already. STEEVENS. Enter Three Fishermen. 1 Fish. What, ho, Pilche! 2 Fish. Ho! come, and bring away the nets. 1 Fish. What Patch-breech, I say! 3 Fish. What say you, master? 1 Fish. Look how thou stirrest now! come away, or I'll fetch thee with a wannion. 3 Fish. 'Faith, master, I am thinking of the poor men that were cast away before us, even now. 1 Fish. Alas, poor souls, it grieved my heart to hear what pitiful cries they made to us to help them, when, well-a-day, we could scarce help ourselves. 3 Fish. Nay, master, said not I as much, when I saw the porpus, how he bounced and tumbled ? they say, they are half fish, half flesh: a plague on them, they ne'er come, but I look to be washed. Master, I marvel how the fishes live in the sea. 1 Fish. Why, as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones I can compare our rich misers to nothing so fitly as to a whale; 'a plays and tumbles, driving the poor fry before him, and at last devours them all at a mouthful. Such whales have I heard on a' the land, who never leave gaping, till they've swallowed' the whole parish, church, steeple, bells and all. Per. A pretty moral. 3 Fish. But, master, if I had been the sexton, I would have been that day in the belfry. 2 Fish. Why, man? 3 Fish. Because he should have swallowed me too. and when I had been in his belly, I would have kept such a jangling of the bells, that he should never have left, till he cast bells, steeple, church, and parish, up again. But if the good king Simonides were of my mind Per. Simonides? 3 Fish. We would purge the land of these drones, that rob the bee of her honey. Per. How from the finny subject of the sea These fishers tell the infirmities of men ; And from their watry empire recollect All that may men approve or men detect!-- [9] Captain Cook, in his second voyage to the South Seas, mentions the playing of porpusses round the ship as a certain sign of a violent gale of wind. M. MASON. |